The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | August 7th, 2025: Is A Ukraine Ceasefire Near? Moscow Confirms Trump Meeting & US Army Soldier Busted In Plot To Aid The Kremlin

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:  First—it appears a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to take place next week, signaling a potential breakthrough in the president’s efforts to end war. But Trump’s suggestion for a trilateral summit between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received an icier reception from the Kremlin, raising doubts regarding Putin’s seriousness about reaching a ceasefire. Later in the show—a U.S. Army soldier with top-level security clearance has been arrested after allegedly attempting to pass classified data about America's most advanced military battle tanks to the Russian government. We’ll have the details. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief DeleteMe: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you text PDB to 64000. Message and data rates apply. TriTails Premium Beef: Visit https://trybeef.com/pdb & get 2 Free Flat Iron steaks True Classic: Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at https://trueclassic.com/PDB #trueclassicpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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and Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to take place next week, signaling a potential breakthrough in the effort to end Russia's war on Ukraine. But Trump's suggestion for a trilateral summit between himself Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky while that's received an icier reception from the Kremlin, raising doubts about Putin's seriousness on reaching a ceasefire. Later in the show, a U.S. Army soldier with top-level security clearances has been arrested after allegedly attempting to pass classified data about America's most advanced military battle tank to the Russian government.

We'll have those details. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. We return to our coverage of a possible summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which looks set to take place next week, after the Kremlin confirmed their participation. Now, as we discussed on this morning's program, reports first surfaced Wednesday evening of the potential sit-down following an 11th-hour meeting between Putin and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff

just ahead of Trump's Friday deadline from Moscow to reach a ceasefire with Ukraine. White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said on Wednesday that President Trump was open to the idea, though no official confirmation followed. But early Thursday morning, officials with the Kremlin said a bilateral meeting between the two presidents had been agreed to, quote, in principle, and that preparations were already underway to organize the summit over the coming days. An aide to Putin said the suggestion for a meeting came from the American side, though the White House said it was Putin himself, who floated the idea during his Wednesday's sit-down with Whitkoff. As I mentioned, the Whitkoff meeting came amid Trump's pressure campaign against the Kremlin.

On Wednesday, Trump hit India with an additional 25% tariff over its ongoing purchases of Russian oil. And he set a Friday deadline for Putin to reach a ceasefire or face additional sanctions and potential tariffs of 100% on their remaining trading partners. Now, if the meeting does move forward, it will mark Trump and Putin's first in-person encounter since, well, 2019's G20 summit. But according to a White House source that spoke exclusively to the news, New York Post, Trump has one major caveat. He will only sit down with the Russian dictator if Putin also agrees to meet face to face with Ukrainian President Zelensky. The anonymous White House official

said, quote, Putin must meet with Zelensky for the meeting to occur. No location has been set, end quote. As we discussed earlier on the PDB, during a call with European leaders following the Whitkoff meeting, Trump said he wants the Putin meeting to be followed shortly by a trilateral summit between himself, Putin, and Zelensky. But that idea was met with an icy reception by the Kremlin. An aide to Putin said Thursday that a trilateral summit, quote, for some reason was mentioned by Washington yesterday, but not specifically discussed, end quote. Putin later said, he has, quote, nothing against it, it is possible, but for this to happen,

certain conditions must be created. He added, unfortunately, such conditions are far away yet, end quote. In the past, Putin has questioned. the legitimacy of Zelensky's leadership and suggested an interim government in Ukraine would be needed to finalize any potential peace deal. As a reminder, Ukrainian elections were scrapped last year due to the war, and Zelensky has been leading under an extended period of martial law since the invasion back in early 2022. Putin has used this to try and undermine Zelensky's position, regularly criticizing the suspended elections and, rather ironically, although I don't think

Putin has a sense of irony, implying the emergency more. martial law declaration makes Zelensky an illegitimate leader. Still, despite Putin's comments, Zelensky seems more optimistic than usual about the prospects for peace. In his nightly address on Wednesday, Zelensky said, quote, Russia now seems to be more inclined toward a ceasefire, the pressure is working. The Ukrainian leader stressed, however, that, quote, the key is to ensure they don't deceive anyone in the details, neither us nor the U.S. Now, Trump appears to agree, and is approaching Putin with a great deal more than skepticism than in the past. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated in recent months by the Russian

leaders' intransigence regarding the war in Ukraine, and as previously said, he feels like Putin has been stringing him along with false promises of a ceasefire as the more than three-year-old war grinds on. On one day evening, he tempered expectations about a possible three-way meeting, noting that he has, quote, been disappointed before by Putin's promises of peace. He added that he would know for certain, quote, within a matter of weeks, maybe less, whether Putin was serious about finding a way to settle the conflict. Zelensky, for his part, urged Putin to agree to the proposed trilateral summit, saying Thursday, quote, Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side. It is time we ended the war, end quote. All right. Up next, a U.S.

Army soldier with top-level security clearances has been charged with attempting to smuggle sensitive military secrets to the Kremlin. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, I suspect you already know this, but we are officially deep into the dog days of summer, right? When it's too hot to think, it's sometimes too hot to hang outside, but you know what it's never too hot for? Correct. It's never too hot to grill. And Triedale's Beef is here to help you push through the heat of summer with a freezer full of great-tasting pasture-raised Black Angus Beef. Look, head over to trybeef.com slash PDB to see what I'm talking about. Tri-Tales is a terrific fifth-generation family-run Texas ranch,

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USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usaa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. In an attempt to aid the Kremlin, a U.S. Army soldier with top-level security clearances has been arrested for allegedly trying to pass classified data about America's most advanced tank to the Russians. According to the Department of Justice, 22-year-old private first class Taylor Adam Lee was taken into custody Wednesday in El Paso, Texas. He faces federal charges of attempting to transmit restricted technical specifications on U.S. armored vehicles,

including the Army's crown jewel, the M1A2 Abrams take, to an individual he believed was working for the Russian Ministry of Defense. Lee, an active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Bliss, which straddles the Texas-New Mexico state line, held top-secret sensitive compartmented information clearances at the time of the alleged leaks. Makes you wonder who did his background checks. Court documents, reveal the alleged espionage scheme began earlier this year when Lee initiated contact with someone he believed to be a Russian government official, but that contact, according to prosecutors, was never confirmed to be Russian. Prosecutors have not disclosed whether the recipient was part of a U.S. counterintelligence sting. By June, Lee had begun transmitting restricted military

schematics, including details on classified arm and platforms while offering up his service to the Russian military. In one message cited in court filings, Lee wrote, quote, the USA is not happy with me for trying to expose their weaknesses, oh, you think? Later, adding, quote, at this point, I'd even volunteer to assist the Russian Federation when I'm there in any way. Federal agents say Lee doubled down in July by handing over an SD card loaded with sensitive military documents during an in-person meeting with a supposed Russian contact. Now, some of the material investigators noted appeared to be outside Lee's authorized access. In his own words, the files were, quote, sensitive and likely classified. The plot escalated further that same month when Lee allegedly

discussed a specific internal tank component to only later place it in a rented storage unit in El Paso for the contact to pick up. Afterward, he set a follow-up message with a blunt update of, quote, mission accomplished. The Department of Defense swiftly condemned the betrayal. Brigadier General Sean Stinchin, commanding General of Army Counterintelligence Command, said in a statement, quote, this arrest is an alarming reminder of the serious threat facing our U.S. Army soldiers who violate their oath and become insider threats that they will absolutely be caught and brought to justice. Lee made his initial court appearance on Wednesday.

Now, if convicted, he could spend decades behind bars for attempting to aid foreign adversaries while still in uniform. As for the motive, well, that remains unclear. other than apparent vague sympathy and aiding Moscow. It's also unknown. Interestingly, if the tank component that he left in the storage unit was actually collected by Lee's supposed Russian contact. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday the 7th of August. Now, if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do,

please reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, that is certainly possible. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brue. by visiting PDB Premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.

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